Sony announces two 400-disc Blu-ray megachangers

Sony announced the first Blu-ray megachanger back in 2007, and now, two years later, the company is following up on the effort. The BDP-CX960 ($800, coming in the fall) and BDP-CX7000ES ($2,000, coming in August) both hold 400 Blu-ray Discs and use Gracenote's VideoID and MusicID service to automatically retrieve disc data over an Ethernet connection. That's big news, as our biggest complaint with Sony's older DVD megachanger was how tedious it was to manually enter program data.

Sony BDP-CX7000ES

The entry-level BDP-CX960 comes equipped with all the features that are now standard on Blu-ray players, including Profile 2.0 compatibility and onboard decoding for Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD Master Audio.

The step-up BDP-CX7000ES adds 7.1 analog outputs, an RS-232 port, better build quality, IR inputs and outputs, plus Sony is claiming superior video performance, thanks to technology like the Sony's HD Reality Enhancer. In Sony's words, the HD Reality Enhancer "continually analyzes the original source bit by bit, sharpening edges and reproducing detail, while reducing the effects of film grain." That sounds similar to Toshiba's XDE processing, which were weren't exactly fans of. The BDP-CX7000ES's upgrades don't seem nearly significant enough to justify the $1,200 price increase, but this model is clearly aimed at the "price is no object" crowd that will be taking advantage of the custom installer options.

Both players will use Sony's XMB interface to handle navigating the giant media libraries. We're definitely fans of the XMB interface on the PS3 and AV receivers, but we're interested to see how Sony has adapted it to handle media libraries.

While it's true that most buyers won't have 400 Blu-ray Discs in their collections, the idea of a megachanger than can consolidate all your discs (Blu-rays, DVDs and CDs) still has some merit. On the other hand, we're surprised that neither player has integrated Wi-Fi or any streaming-video capabilities, which are available on considerably cheaper players like the LG BD390 and Samsung BD-P3600.

[VramTheG]

400 Blu-ray disc's!!!!! Whith an average price of $25 a disc it would cost you $10,000 to file it up!!! WOW!!!

[atgrammer]

I wipe my a$$ with $50s

[DMBoricua]

Hahahahahaah!! You must have a lot of money then atgrammer!!

[Mikeybabes]

Who said anything about flushing them away? Ever wondered why money can discolor so quickly?

[Rick Cavaretti]

The new burglar target. Instant $10K (if full) in one shot

[pickles319]

What excites me about this is the possibility of having a 400 disc megachanger that can read any disc type. That would be incredible!

[Mikeybabes]

I don't have anywhere near to 400 discs yet, but if I did, what's wrong with getting off your ass and swapping discs?

[Stormspace]

You could accomplish the same thing with a media PC and a whopping big hard drive if the MPAA would allow real to it's thing. Also, what happens when the spec changes? This thing without ethernet or wifi would suddenly not be able to play any of the disks.

[zip22]

it has an ethernet connection as stated in the first paragraph.

[lil-yankee]

yeah man, didnt you just read the artcle before posting?
Ignorant people bashing on sony.

[make_or_break]

Guys...I think Stormspace meant that if there wasn't an ethernet connection available (or if your internet service was down), then the machine's imitating a brick.

[Stormspace]

Precisely. The sale price of this thing will likely prevent people that aren't going to wire it into the network from buying it, but you never know what some people think they can do with devices that mimic existing products. I can certainly hear people asking why they need internet access to play a DVD, blu ray or not.

[NoahWinter]

Escient's website Vision FAQ states that they are working on protocols with Sony giving this Mega Changer access to the excellent Escient Vision product line as previous Sony DVD disc changers had. This would be a great home theater combination.

[czalamar]

Actually at least the ES version WiLL have WIFI and DLNA support. Need to correct your article!!!

[orbit55]

Make me a couch potato. I could take a big chunk out of that 400-disk capacity with my existing DVDs and growing Blu-Ray collection.

[Shaun822]

I'd never fill the thing but the ability to just lump in all physical media into one box and be done with it forever (or until the next format comes out) is nice.

[Aras_Samy]

how many people in this world will be buying this?

[azzuro2006]

I have something called an Apple Tv that is 90% of the quality at a fraction of the price. No thanks

[lil-yankee]

no one here cares what you have and what your opinion is, if not not related to this product.
Appletards can wait in line untill we finish discussing this as grownups, then is your turn.

[Kendokill]

Umm, Apple tv is nowhere near the same quality as blu ray.

[heygeo]

he does have a point with the cost.. 800 bones for the most affordable which is basically a single blu-ray drive and a carousel seems a bit much not to mention the 2K for those of us who wipe our backsides with 50s.

[lawgone]

@lil-yankee - you call some one an "Appletard" and then refer to yourself as a grown-up. Interesting. I think the posters comment is quite valid since the product is aimed at consolidating your library. However, as an Apple TV and a PS3 owner I will say that Blu ray is much higher quality than the Apple TV or any compressed media for that matter. The ATV video quality is not bad at all - especially in HD - you just don't get the life like quality you do with Blu ray. ATV is more about ease and convenience, which it excels at. I could see owning this Blu ray changer and an Apple TV.

[UncleOalof]

@ azzuro
Don't even bother comparing the Apple TV to a megachanger.

This thing would work well for me, but I already plan on spending the time dumping my movies onto my media center box. In the end a much faster and better alternative, just takes the time of initial set-up.

And as a sad note (I think it is if you do the math) I could fill this thing up with DVDs and still have a lot sitting around. What can I say? I like movies.

[Weeji]

Yeah, but this giant bulky box with 400 cds in it is legal (sadly).

[gnesterenko]

.mkv format
Full 5.1 HD surround sound audio (haven't seen many movies encoded in 7.1 anyway)
Full 1080p video
13-15GB per movie

Take 1 NAS unit, 6TB of storage <$1000

Theres your 400 full HD movies, except these can be easily transported, back-ed up, won't scratchup or go bad, and you never have to wait for disks to switch. Much more versetile. Physical media is dying, albeit very slowly. Hard Drive storage is the future (well, actually it will be SSD storage, but same animal)

"The views expressed here are mine and do not reflect the official opinion of my employer or the organization through which the Internet was accessed."

[lil-yankee]

Dude, this thing isnt necessarily going forwarded to people thinking about buying disc, this is for people that already have lots of disc. In reality, there are manny people that will never leave the actual "physical media" for a digital one.
If everybody followed the trend, shouldnt your next car be a hybrid? shouldnt everybody have an energy saver oled tv? shouldnt everybody eat organic food? wouldnt mcdonalds stop being so popular?
i mean c'on, this is america. The land of the free and the media guided sheeps. This isnt going to be the next ipod, is simply ghided to a niche of people, but it will have its market.

[heygeo]

i agree.. i think physical media is on its deathbed, DRM is all but gone now from music and i think movies will follow. Companies will have no recourse but to resort to digital distribution as the defacto way of ensuring profits. I think that its only a matter of time before you see official services from the big media companies who will take back your media and provide you a digital copy (at a fee of course). or register you digital ownership on a Hulu like service.
times are a changing...

[UncleOalof]

I am going with a mix above, as I said I have the physical media, but I see the future (at some point) to be DRM.

BUT technology for DRM is no where near what it needs to be for full HD content. No where near. Until everyone jumps on FIOS speed internet, and servers obviously are upgraded to match the user capability (there is the balance there) you will not see DRM HD content for the masses for quite sometime.

Since there is throttle issues with current technology, it won't go away until the ENTIRE networking infastructure evolves.

[UKStory1355]

I still believe that we are at least 10 years from being rid of physical media completely. There deed to be a dignificant increase in both bandwidth and storage for this to be a viable option.

[lawgone]

I actually think it will be more than 10 years, if ever. Too many obstacles for mass adoption of the technology. Heck, there are still people using their VCR's.

[Weeji]

Definitely. And in 10 years, Blu-ray will be an obsolete/dying format either way (like DVD is now), so it would be a great "next format".

[mnl1121]

why would anyone need a 400 disc changer? Thanks crazy!

[gnesterenko]

Actually, in my time I actually used far more then this. Well, 500-600 CDs, maybe just under 200ish DVDs, skipped Blue Ray in favor of hard-drive storage. Honestly since then, I've grown a lot more frugal and have stopped buying more DVDs. Reason is, even the great movies that I have on DVD that I told myself have tons of replay value, in reality, actually don't. Never touched them and they just sat there collecting dust. Gave em all away to family members. Now I see zero reason to drop thousands of dollars on a movie collection when im only realistically going to watch any given movie 2 or 3 times, MAX. Netflix is awesome for this since it costs about the same as one BR a month, but I get to watch far more movies for the price and never have to worry about keeping an increasingly large stock of ultimately obsolete disks.

I still have my CD collection, and THAT does keep growing because I do like supporting artists I like (though early on I was buying CDs for artists I eventually hated and they are even gone from my iTunes library). Remember Columbia House? Yea, that was some good deals on music! Signed up my entire family (actually it was all for me. Muhahahha) But as soon as I got my first iPod about 6 years ago, I spent about a month transcoding all the CDs into MP3, boxed up the CDs into a very large plastic bin and its still sitting in my garage and will probably remain for years to come. Now artists are starting to release music directly to me via internet so as far as I'm concerned, physical media for Music is dead already. (Kudos Trent Reznor!!!) For movies, its still out there, but the trend is identical to that of music and while in 10 years BR may still be around, its certainly not a format that I will have cared about for even the past 8 years. I have the tech and I have the FIOS hookup and things will only improve from here...

... Right up until Yellowstone supervolcano decides to blow its top and takes out my media entertainment system along with the rest of society.

"The views expressed here are mine and do not reflect the official opinion of my employer or the organization through which the Internet was accessed."

[cyclonica1980]

I will take a media PC with a 1 TB HD and a blu ray burner. 860 > 2000.00 thanks

[starstreak]

I loved the DVD changer but the menu system and startup was soooo sloooow. I would buy this if you guys can tell me if the startup is quicker

[FreeNEasy]

Wipe? Wasdat? Pleez pass da popcorn.....

[jaffreywali]

They should have thrown in Netflix and Pandora like samsung and LG does. Wi fi would have been another nice touch. Sony already offers DLNA which would have made these formidable home theatre products. .

[mastermaybe]

We're a ways off media streamers yet...for many of the reasons already named here:

1. Storage is still cost-prohibitive. Contrary to what one posted, full-quality movie rips are closer to 30 GIGs each, not 15. So, you can count on at least 12 TB's for a 400 count library, and at least $100 a TB, hardly cheap...not even counting what you'll pay for the NAS.

2. Ripping BD's onto a HDD is a ridiculously painful endeavor. Hours and hours. Thanks, I'd rather watch my movies.

3. I've yet to see a NAS with decent RW FF and Menu functions, if ANY at all. Yes, these exist for a reason.

4. No BD live functionality. Although not currently popular, word is it will be used much more in the future.

5. Setting up HDD backup is a pain in the a**. Even a RAID. Simple as that.

6. The VAST majority of the population wants plug-and-play. Setting up and maintaining a NAS is simply too involving.


This changer has a MUCH bigger market than people are anticipating, and with a MSRP at $799 for the CX version, will almost certainly be able to be had for around $700 soon after its release.

I'll buy it, and use it with my DirecTv, Apple TV, and PS3!

[mooseontheloose89]

Talk about overkill...
I hope this works with my jumbotron and my 100 channel surround sound system...
the worst part is they still expect $25 a disc too!

[Donaldxr]

I like how the higher priced model boasts "better build quality". Does that mean the cheaper one is made out of cardboard and built by monkeys?